What makes a good thriller? The acting? The direction? The clever screenplay with a twist ending? Or is it some mixture of all those elements that provides enough thrills to satisfy a viewer?
Watch With Us may not have clear answers to all those questions, but we do know a good thriller when we see one, and Hulu has plenty of them.
The best of them, like Nightmare Alley with Bradley Cooper, stand apart from the rest due to their engrossing stories and jaw-dropping endings.
The movies on this list differ in scope, tone and execution, but they all provide enough satisfaction to qualify as some of the best thrillers streaming right now.
‘Boston Stranger’ (2023)
Thrillers based on real-life events are usually creepier than fictional stories, and Boston Strangler is one of the better ones out there. Boston newspaper reporters Loretta McCaughlin (Keira Knightley) and Jean Cole (Carrie Coon) investigate a series of murders they believe are caused by one man. But the police are reluctant to admit they have a serial killer on their hands until Loretta and Jean’s persistent reporting forces the authorities to face the hard truth — there’s a Boston Strangler on the loose, and he’s preying on the city’s women.
Fans of Zodiac will like Boston Strangler as the film borrows liberally from David Fincher’s 2007 masterpiece. That’s OK, though, as it works well in depicting its protagonists’ dogged investigative efforts to catch a slippery killer. Knightley in particular stands out as a reporter fighting not only the police force’s indifference to her work, but also a sexist workplace that continually undermines her work.
Boston Strangler is streaming on Hulu.
‘The Desperate Hour’ (2021)
Amy Carr’s (Naomi Watts) ordinary morning is about to change for the worse in the underrated thriller The Desperate Hour. When she goes for a routine jog one morning, she learns a shooter has taken several hostages at her son’s high school. Worried, she calls her son to see if he’s OK and doesn’t get a response. As Amy tries desperately to find out more information from the cops and her son’s friends, she not only becomes scared that her son might be in danger, but also could be the shooter holding everyone hostage.
The Desperate Hour works because it imagines every parent’s worst nightmare — a school shooting — and creates a tense thriller off that premise. For a while, Amy — and the viewer — doesn’t know if her son is one of the hostages or the shooter himself, and that ambiguity makes The Desperate Hour stand out from other thrillers in the genre. Watts is terrific as the increasingly panicked mother who will do anything for her children, no matter how innocent — or guilty — he turns out to be.
The Desperate Hour is streaming on Hulu.
‘Cuckoo’ (2024)
Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) is a teenager who has every reason to be moody. She’s still getting over the death of her mother, and her dad’s work has taken her away from her home. Stuck in a remote resort in the Bavarian Alps, Gretchen notices some unusual things, like strange screams in the distance and a hooded woman who seems to be stalking her. She begins to suspect her father’s employer, the weird Herr Koning (Dan Stevens), is behind it all, but how can she prove it and stay alive?
Cuckoo lives up to its title — it’s genuinely bonkers in all the right ways. The film’s bucolic European setting is used effectively, with the Alps casting sinister shadows over Gretchen and her family. Schafer is a great addition to the Final Girl Hall of Fame, and Stevens adds another madman role to his already impressive resume of unhinged weirdos.
Cuckoo is streaming on Hulu.
‘Nightmare Alley’ (2021)
Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) is a man who is running from his past. That’s what makes him join a travelling circus, where he soon finds success as a phony psychic and spiritualist. Eventually, he leaves the circus to exploit a wealthier clientele in upscale Buffalo, where he meets Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett). Stan believes he may have met his soul mate, but little does he realize Lilith is exactly like him — except smarter and more ruthless. Has Stan finally met his match?
One of the few remakes nominated for Best Picture, Nightmare Alley is a terrific thriller noir that keeps you enthralled throughout its 150-minute runtime. Cooper is outstanding as a man who thinks he has all the answers, and he’s matched by Blanchett, who quickly shows him he knows nothing. Nightmare Alley is the rare thriller that has an ending that’s both obvious and shocking. It turns out no one, not even smooth-talking Stan, can escape their fate.
Nightmare Alley is streaming on Hulu.
‘Eileen’ (2023)
Eileen Dunlop’s (Thomasin McKenzie) life is pretty drab. She lives in Massachusetts, where the winters are long and bleak, and she works at a juvenile detention facility for teenage boys, which is about as exciting as it sounds. But one day, in walks the platinum blonde Rebecca Saint John (Anne Hathaway), and Eileen’s life is forever changed — at first for the better, and then for the worse. Who is Rebecca, and what exactly does she want from Eileen besides mere friendship?
Eileen is an excellent thriller that’s also a compelling character study as it follows both women’s interest in a young inmate, Lee Polk (The White Lotus star Sam Nivola), who Rebecca suspects is hiding a dark family secret. Hathaway is in full movie-star mode as the glamorous Rebecca, and McKenzie is convincing as the sexually repressed Eileen. The film is a straightforward thriller with a deliberately anti-climactic ending that may anger some and please others.
Eileen is streaming on Hulu.
‘Black Swan’ (2010)
Natalie Portman won a Best Actress Oscar for her work in this psychological thriller, and it’s one of the few times the Academy got it right. Portman stars as Nina Sayers, a New York City ballet dancer who auditions for the lead role in an upcoming production of Swan Lake. The competition is fierce, though, and Nina’s fragile state soon fractures as she risks everything to win the dual part of the White and Black Swan and give the performance of a lifetime — even if it kills her.
Black Swan is just as visceral and intense today as it was in 2010, and that’s due to Portman and director Darren Aronofsky. Both are in sync in depicting the rapid deterioration of a woman whose life is largely empty except for one obsession — ballet. Black Swan’s climax is simply superb — transcendent, horrific, sad and oddly triumphant.
Black Swan is streaming on Hulu.
‘Femme’ (2023)
One night, London drag queen Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) is violently assaulted by a group of homophobic men. Months later, he encounters one of them, Preston (George MacKay), at a gay sauna. When he realizes Preston doesn’t recognize him out of drag, Jules plots to exact revenge by filming them having sex and posting it on the internet. However, as Jules gets to know more about Preston, he develops feelings for him that could derail his plan.
Femme is a non-traditional thriller that examines the different gender roles men play to appease those around them. The movie is striking partly due to it being set in places like London’s housing projects and gay nightclubs, which you don’t normally see in this genre.
Femme is streaming on Hulu.
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